Run terminal command on startup with launchd.plist - macos

Question

I was looking for an answer to my question on stackoverflow and found a thread (https://superuser.com/questions/229773/run-command-on-startup-login-mac-os-x). That's how I found out about launchd.plist and I made one by myself:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>js.leapmotion</string>
<key>OnDemand</key>
<false/>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>open</string>
<string>/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app</string>
</array>
<key>LaunchOnlyOnce</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>
this indeed starts my terminal after booting my mac. But now I want it to navigate to a directory and run the command gulp in there.
This again will do the rest, opens up a localhost and so on...
So in the end I just need to run gulp within an specific directory. That's all. If launchd.plist is not the best way to go, then I'm open for alternatives.
Otherwise I would like to know how I can tell the terminal what commands it should run.
Thanks for hints.
cheers
J

Answer 1

You can use the open command to open Terminal and run a script by using the -a flag. For example, open -a Terminal /path/to/myscript will open a new Terminal window and run myscript. Note that when myscript finishes, the session will terminate (i.e. there's no shell). To change that, you can run bash or whatever your preferred shell is as part of the script.
In your case, I would suggest creating a basic script to do whatever you want Terminal to execute, such as :
#!/usr/bin/env bash
cd /path/to/your/directory
/usr/bin/gulp
Save that (making sure it's executable), and then change your launchd plist to match:
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>open</string>
<string>-a</string>
<string>Terminal</string>
<string>/path/to/yourscript</string>
</array>